~ Adventures of a 20-year bonsai beginner

Monthly Archives: September 2016

As I’m sure you surmised, the name Bonsai Iterate is based on the lyrics from the 1987 INXS hit song, Mediate. Sing it with me!

Love your mate, don’t suffocate on your own hate, bonsai iterate, a one world state as human freight…

Eh… You know, I’m not even sure that’s the pronunciation I prefer. What if it rhymed with “literate” (as in, I hope to become bonsai literate)? The first pronunciation would be a verb, right? Would the latter be an adjective, like “literate,” or would we prefer to think of it as a noun as we might use when we say, “this guy is a bonsai illiterate!”

(Or a little rhyme) “Bonsai Iterate? More like bonsai idiot!”

You know what. I don’t care. Can we at least agree that bonsai is an iterative process? If we do it right, each iteration will be a little better than the last. Right?

Now sing me out with that little fading echo before the instrumental part…

It’s been a bonsai-filled day at Meadowlark Botanical Gardens inVienna, Virginia. This is the final day of the Northern Virginia Bonsai Society Fall show.

The Potomac Bonsai Association fall auction took place in the pavilion on the Meadowlark grounds.

And there were many visitors to the exhibition throughout the afternoon.

All-in-all, a pretty great day! Many thanks to all of the folks who pitched in to help, and a special thank-you to Gary Reese, Leann Duling and other PBA members who organized the auction, and to Steve Miller for serving as our auctioneer. I look forward a continued partnership and future events at Meadowlark.

I have never shown one of my trees before… Have I mentioned, yet, that I’ve been doing this bonsai thing for twenty years? It’s about time I put one out there!

This show, along with my own 20 year anniversary, are the springboards for starting this blog. I should have better trees to show by now, but the past two decades have been spent keeping trees alive in pots, which I am slowly learning is quite different from being a bonsai practitioner.

So let that be a lesson to you young rascals out there. Don’t squander the years. Years are precious in bonsai. Learn everything you can as soon as you can so when you are twenty years in you have more to show than I.

I’ve stalled long enough. If the point is to show a tree, then I shall show a tree.

Boxwood (Buxux), approximately 20 years old and (keeping in mind all the caveats provided above) in training for 10 years. Northern Virginia Bonsai Society Fall Show, 2016, Meadowlark Botanical Gardens. Come on out and see it, and a bunch of other great trees. The show will be there all weekend.

I confess. I have been a bonsai newb for two decades. About this time of year, twenty years ago, in 1996, I became fascinated with bonsai and the love of the art has never gone away.

I got a book… Got a tree… Got another book… Got another tree… And another tree. Then two decades later I found myself thinking, “I can’t believe I’ve been doing this for this long, and I still don’t know what I’m doing.”

That’s when I decided to get serious. I started reading more, researching, and following bonsai bloggers. I joined the local bonsai club, the Northern Virginia Bonsai Society, and in a fairly short time I learned more new information than I had since I read that first book.

So this blog marks a new start – a second try at being a bonsai beginner, another iteration of myself as a bonsai enthusiast – and I hope to share the journey with you. So, see if you can figure out where to click to follow Bonsai Iterate and come along for the ride.